MON ONCLE D'AMERIQUE Movie Review

Les Somnambules

Director Alain Resnais tracks three characters as they encounter success of various kinds in modern Paris. Their adventures are interspersed with ironic, enlightening, and hilariously relevant lectures from Professor Henri Laborit, about the biology that impels and influences human behavior. (When these lectures are particularly impersonal or scientific in nature, we will see the actors appear with the heads of huge laboratory rats protruding from their clothing. Yes, it's a gimmick—but it's a riot, and it works brilliantly.) As each of the characters experiences inevitable setbacks in love or career, they dream of their proverbial—and generic—American uncle, who someday will grant all their wishes and make their dreams come true. Resnais's witty and bracingly intelligent Mon Oncle d'Amerique suggests Death of a Salesman as reworked by benevolent space aliens; it provides the experience of seeing our lives under the microscope, yet refuses to find anything depressing about our remarkably predictable behavior. One of the best and most shamefully neglected French films of the 1980s.With Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, and Roger Pierre. Jean Grualt's deft screenplay, based on the works of the real Henri Laborit, received an Oscar nomination.

NEXT STOP … Providence, A Clockwork Orange, The Young Poisoner's Handbook

1980 (PG) 123m/C FR Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger-Pierre, Marie DuBois; D: Alain Resnais; W: Jean Gruault; C: Sacha Vierny. Cannes Film Festival ‘80: Grand Jury Prize; New York Film Critics Awards ‘80: Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘80: Best Original Screenplay. VHS NYF, BTV